FILE PHOTO — Gov. Greg Abbott named J. Bruce Bugg, Jr. of San Antonio chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees the state highway system and Department of Transportation on Sept. 19, 2017 (Kin Man Hui/San Antonio Express-News) less

FILE PHOTO — Gov. Greg Abbott named J. Bruce Bugg, Jr. of San Antonio chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees the state highway system and Department of Transportation on Sept. 19, ... more

Photo: Kin Man Hui /San Antonio Express-News

Image 2 of 3

Bugg

Bugg

Photo: Courtesy /Courtesy

Image 3 of 3

Abbott names San Antonian chairman of Texas Transportation Commission

1 / 3

Back to Gallery

AUSTIN — San Antonio businessman J. Bruce Bugg Jr. will continue efforts to reduce congestion around the state’s biggest cities as the newly named chairman of the five-member Texas Transportation Commission, he said Wednesday.

“I am honored and absolutely ecstatic and ready to go,” Bugg said.

Bugg is chairman and chief executive officer of Argyle Investment Co. LLC and chairman of the board of the Bank of San Antonio, among other titles, according to Gov. Greg Abbott’s office.

Abbott, who first appointed Bugg in 2015 to the powerful commission overseeing the Texas Department of Transportation, announced the leadership change Tuesday.

Abbott didn’t outline the reasons he moved Bugg into the chairman role, and his office did not respond to requests for comment.

Bugg succeeds Tryon Lewis, a former lawmaker from Odessa who had led the commission since 2015, when Abbott appointed him. Both he and Bugg are serving six-year terms. Lewis didn’t return a request for comment, but he expected to remain on the commission, according to department spokesman Bob Kaufman.

Boy carted off in ambulance after S.A. shooting as relatives scream in anguishSan Antonio Express-News

On the commission, Bugg has spearheaded an initiative to reduce congestion in the state’s five largest metropolitan areas, including San Antonio and Houston.

That work will continue, Bugg said, as he works to match projects with new funding streams. The department has seen an influx of funding recently after voters approved two constitutional amendments dedicating billions of extra dollars to the state highway fund.

“I am focused on executing,” Bugg said. “How can we really accelerate execution of projects and put all those funding streams to work immediately, because, as you know, a transportation project is a pretty long process from beginning to end.”

At the same time, the commission will be focused on maintaining roads across the state and “in the far reaches of rural Texas,” he said.

The change in commission leadership comes on the heels of a major staff shake-up in Abbott’s office that will see the departure of his longtime chief of staff and usher in a new team of senior advisers.

Lewis headed up the commission at a time when the department was in need of better relations with members of the Legislature, Bugg said. In 2015, state lawmakers stopped so-called “diversions” from the highway fund to pay for other state needs, which generated roughly an extra $650 million a year.

Bugg learned about his new role Tuesday morning, he said, when Abbott called him hours before publicly announcing the change.

He is a donor to Abbott’s campaigns, according to finance reports filed with the Texas Ethics Commission. This year, Bugg contributed $25,000 to Abbott’s gubernatorial re-election campaign, but he dismissed any notion that the contributions are related to the appointment.

“My donations to him have never been tied to discussions we have had about state business. There is no one more ethical than Greg Abbott,” he said.

The last San Antonian to serve on the commission was Hope Andrade, who was on the panel from late 2003 to 2008 and served as interim chair for four months in 2008.